Texas was one of the early pioneers in bilingual education.  In 1968, Joe Bernal, a State Representative from San Antonio, championed a new state law to remove the prohibition of bilingual education and allowed for schools to implement bilingual programs in schools throughout Texas.  Texas is one of four states that require school districts to implement bilingual education.

According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA),  there were 1,010,756 English Learners (ELs), 537,055 Bilinguals, and 468,710 English as a Second Language students (ESL) during the 2016-2017 school year.  There are over 120 languages represented throughout Texas schools, with 911,680 Spanish speakers in Texas, equaling 90.29%.  

In recent years, Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students constitute the ever increasing sector of Texas’ public school population.  From the 1993-94 school year to the 2007-2008 school year, LEP students increased 82.1 percent. The highest concentration of Texas’ LEP students is in elementary school grades.  With each passing grade year, the number of LEP students decreases.

While bilingual education remains in effect in the state of Texas, very few bilingual education advocates find the programs acceptable.  One of the long-standing issues of bilingual education in Texas is the lack of bilingual education certified teachers.  For instance, the Texas State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) reported in 2006 that 867 teachers working in bilingual classes lacked required certification.  That number demonstrated that nearly 18,000 LEP students were being taught by less than qualified teachers.

A number of efforts have been implemented in order to increase the bilingual teacher pool.  Some efforts include providing federally subsidized stipends to encourage more teachers to enter the field of education and efforts to encourage high school graduates to pursue bilingual education or ESL certification.  Another issue impacting bilingual education is the funding or lack of funding in Texas. Bilingual programs are either heavily subsidized by local tax revenues or are operated at less than optimum levels.

Texas higher education institutions, such as The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Education, strive to provide teachers with programmatic training and focus on improving the quality of educational-related services provided in bilingual education classrooms.  Organizations, such as The Latino Literacy Project, work with school administrators, educators, and parents to educate them on how they can better instruct LEP students.  The Project offers seminars and webinars that provide valuable information for all people involved in the education of LEP students.